Man shoots down drone hovering over his backyard

[UK2K]

Kentucky man William Merideth has no mercy for drones hovering in his backyard.

"It was hovering, I would never have shot it if it was flying. When he came down with a video camera right over my back deck, that's not going to work. I know they're neat little vehicles, but one of those uses shouldn't be flying into people's yards and videotaping."

...arrested for criminal mischief and wanton endangerment. He also had to pay $1,800 for the drone he destroyed

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What's your opinion on this? Do you own the space above your house? How far up? Or do you consider this trespassing?

[KyrieTheFuture]

**** that, you stop above my house you're probably spying on me. Down it goes.

[UK2K]

link?

Nothing personal, I don't trust your selective quoting

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ken...ard/ar-AAdGg2x

All good. I hear ya.

The 43-year-old man claimed that law enforcement officials, including the county jailer, told him privately that they agreed with his actions. "The people that own the drones and the people that hate guns are the only ones that disagree with what I did," he said.

[Lebron23]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDXuGQRpvs4

Drones are only good at delivering Pizza.

[Velocirap31]

I think he's justified. The owner of the drone is guilty of voyeurism in my opinion.

[9erempiree]

The Property Rights of Airspace

By Alan R. Romero from Property Law For Dummies

In property law, owning land includes owning the earth under the surface and air above the surface. While ownership under the surface theoretically extends to the center of the earth, ownership of the air above the surface doesn

[DCL]

there are international air space laws. if you fly a drone into the air space of another country, it'll probably be shot down if they see it. no military will be confused when they play these spy games.

but what are the rights of a retail toy drone owner?

this is another example of technology far outpacing the law.

clearly, there is some deep invasion of privacy if the drone is hovering only a few feet above your property.

but what if it was 100ft or 200ft above? how can that height be estimated or proven by someone on the ground? it'll be a tricky court battle if it's a he said, she said thing because it'll be pretty hard to prove how high the craft was flying.

the most simple law to go at it right now is probably to ban all toy drones / personal flying crafts (like rc helicopters) in all residential areas except in designated areas or park space.

[9erempiree]

there are international air space laws. if you fly a drone into the air space of another country, it'll probably be shot down if they see it. no military will be confused when they play these spy games.

but what are the rights of a retail toy drone owner?

this is another example of technology far outpacing the law.

clearly, there is some deep invasion of privacy if the drone is hovering only a few feet above your property.

but what if it was 100ft or 200ft above? how can that height be estimated or proven by someone on the ground? it'll be a tricky court battle if it's a he said, she said thing because it'll be pretty hard to prove how high the craft was flying.

the most simple law to go at it right now is probably to ban all toy drones / personal flying crafts (like rc helicopters) in all residential areas except in designated areas or park space.

It's really not as tricky as you think. If a shotgun/rifle can bring down a drone, then the drone is too low.

Also, 100 or 200 feet is low in my opinion.

[UK2K]

[QUOTE=9erempiree]The Property Rights of Airspace

By Alan R. Romero from Property Law For Dummies

In property law, owning land includes owning the earth under the surface and air above the surface. While ownership under the surface theoretically extends to the center of the earth, ownership of the air above the surface doesn

[UK2K]

It's really not as tricky as you think. If a shotgun/rifle can bring down a drone, then the drone is too low.

An M16 has a max effective range of around 550 meters.

That's 1500 feet. Planes fly lower than that sometimes.

Anywhere: an altitude allowing a safe emergency landing without undue hazard to person or property on the ground; Over Congested Areas: an altitude of 1,000 feet above the highest obstacle within a horizontal distance of less than 2,000 feet; Over Populated Areas: an altitude of 500 feet AGL;

[DCL]

the height thing would be difficult to prove in court.

drone owner claims drone was 500 or 1000ft above.

home owner claims drone was 20 feet above.

one of those things.

[ShackEelOKneel]

.

What's your opinion on this? Do you own the space above your house? How far up? Or do you consider this trespassing?

To an extend, depends on how violating it is. Planes flying over are also over your house, but not immediately. A drone 40 feet above video taping certainly feels like a violation and I say fair game to bring it down (assuming gun laws allow you to shoot in that area, otherwise a hose may be good). A kid next door flying a kite though that wind happens to have somewhat over your property doesn't feel like a violation though.

[ISHGoat]

This is all super vague.

Technically the homeowner wasn't using the air at the time. Then again, maybe his buckshot was using the air over his home.

I really think there needs to be a clearly defined height. The problem is, nobody will agree on what that is and everyone uses their land differently (grain silos, for example).

I think there is no clearly defined height because up until now we didnt need one. I think incidents like this will trigger lawmakers to decide on the exact terms of personal air ownership.

[9erempiree]

An M16 has a max effective range of around 550 meters.

That's 1500 feet. Planes fly lower than that sometimes.

I understand this but in my opinion, no responsible owner of these rifles would try to bring down a drone that is consistent to the rifle's max feet.

[UK2K]

I think there is no clearly defined height because up until now we didnt need one. I think incidents like this will trigger lawmakers to decide on the exact terms of personal air ownership.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_kfUVZdTkU

Or putting a gun on a drone. How dangerously stupid is that?